In this work camp run by FSL-India, we had 5 international volunteers from different nationalities, i.e. Italy, Belgium, Japan and 1 national volunteer.  From 19th August-1st September 2019, Simona Santoro, Sara Traldi, Romane Stiermon, Hikaru Yonezu, Yukako Yamasoto  and Sri Ranjini Raman spent 2 weeks at Jodhpur, where they actively took part in various activities at the Jodhpur  MCC Secondary School.

They helped to renovate class rooms, had art and craft sessions with the schoolchildren, painted the school walls and educational paintings on the building walls. They also helped to clean up the school grounds.

Our volunteers experienced inter-cultural exchange in the 2-week camp. Every afternoon, they visited local cultural places like Mehrangarh Fort and Museum Trust, as well as Mandore Gardens. The gardens are famous for their rich flora and architectural heritage. The remnants of the ancient capital of Pratiharas, who ruled the region in the 6^th century AD can still be found here.

FSL-India’s volunteers were also involved in other activities like creating awareness about nature, and also gardening with the children at the school. All of them had a beautiful experience and for that short time together, they were a family.

Here’s some feedback from them:

Simona Santoro, Italy: It’s very difficult explaining how much intense this experience was. Travelling around Rajasthan and facing cultural and environmental differences can be very tough sometimes, until you don’t feel at home. More than arriving, living in India is the most difficult part of the journey. Thank you for everything, for the opportunity and the possibility to talk and share knowledge with the community and with children, who have surprised us every day with their curiosity and their interest towards us and our countries. Thank you for allowing us to understand and live a very small but so important part of your life. I hope to come back soon. Best wishes.

Ranju (Sri Ranjini Raman), India): It’s finally hitting me how the 10 days went by so fast and now we have to go back to our normal lives. Thank you for being a part of my journey in rediscovering my country in all its beauty and glory. I hope you enjoyed and learnt a lot from the diverse cosmic chaos of cultures and people. I hope you spread the word about the goodness but also about the struggles of the people here and I hope you come back someday to discover more of India’s beauty and help the people who make it beautiful in your own way. It’s pretty awesome how we all had our different interpretations of doing good, travelling  and helping people and how that brought us together like a family in a week. I will miss all of you a lot ! Keep in touch. Lots of love.

Romane Stiermon, Belgium: Thank you Ranju, for these beautiful words, you said everything. It was “just” 10 days in a life, but you all made it beautiful by giving a bit of you and sharing whatever you could. Time flies when we’re happy, travelling, exchanging and discovering new things around us. Thank you for what you brought us. I’ll also truly miss you all, ‘cause y’all are beautiful human beings!